Dunne looking for better show

WHAT do players do with their spare time in the days leading up to a major game?

Not a lot, it would appear, although it’s a topic that’s rarely raised in public. In preparation for their Guinness All-Ireland hurling semi-final on Sunday, the Tipp hurlers trained in Thurles on Monday night and had a light work-out in Croke Park on Wednesday. They will come together tomorrow prior to leaving for Dublin.

Skipper Thomas Dunne was in Upperchurch on Tuesday night, where all his sticks are produced by local hurley-maker Phil Burke, and from there he travelled on to Thurles to get a

rub-down. “You wouldn’t normally do a whole lot, maybe watch a bit of television, get the gear cleaned out for the next night’s training or do a bit of paper work for the job at home,’’ he says. His association with Phil Burke goes back a long way, since he was hurling at underage level. “He’s well-known, but there’s no real connection only that a lot of the lads I knew used to get their hurleys from him. I’ve always liked the hurleys he makes, so I kept coming.’’ It’s an aspect of the game that may often by overlooked by supporters, unless they are involved in clubs or played the game themselves. Justin McCarthy doesn’t merely place it high in his priorities, he works on refining hurleys in his spare time, doing things like getting the balance right. Dunne points out that a good hurley could last him 12 months, or no longer than two weeks. Generally, however, he gets good mileage out of his hurleys.

He doesn’t mince his words in describing the defeat by this year’s Munster final defeat Waterford. In simple terms, it was “a serious setback.’ “We had played well against Clare and Limerick but we played poorly in the final - when Waterford probably peaked. I don’t know why it happened, but it did, and we found ourselves having to rejig our season. Mentally, it was a bit of a shock to the system. We met Offaly two weeks later and it turned out to be very big game for us. Now, we find ourselves back in a semi-final, but we didn’t want to have to come through the qualifier system. At the same time, we were grateful for it especially the day after the Waterford game!’’ Thinking back to the Munster final, Dunne saw nothing wrong in their build-up. Training had gone well, but there might have been a concern that “things were going too well.”

“The team seemed to be coming into form just nicely, but definitely the public expectation was a bit crazy, to be honest about it. A lot of people, particularly in the media, and Tipp people in general, would have felt that they team were going to win the final. I don’t know if a certain amount of that rubbed off on the players, but the team is never comfortable in those sort of circumstances. Most teams aren’t, to be honest. There were comments made which helped “fire up” Waterford and on the day they gave a tremendous account of themselves.

But, from our point of view we just didn’t play on the day - and for reasons we’re not exactly sure about. Maybe we believed some of the stuff that was said about us.’’ Yet, on further reflection, Dunne agrees that the team still produced good form on the day, pointing out that at one stage in the second half they were ahead by a point. “We were contesting the ball well and we were competitive. In fairness, the team tried as hard as they could. I don’t think you could accuse the team of giving up, except that maybe in the last five minutes we were comprehensively beaten. We were giving as good as we got for a long time before Waterford pulled away from us.’’

There was no question of under-estimating Antrim, even though to a large extent they were something of an unknown quantity. “We were expecting a big test, knowing that Dinny Cahill was with them and the amount of training they were after doing. I think we were probably taken a little bit by surprise by the quality of their hurling. They had a lot of good players, to be fair to them, and it took a lot of time to wear them down. We won by ten points at the end, but it did take us a long time to get going.

“When you are a team like Antrim coming down to play the All-Ireland champions, the longer they stayed in the game and were close to us - the desire and the hunger they have was far greater than what we had.’’

For a county that’s “never that far away” from winning All-Irelands, he is expecting Tipperary to face a huge test from Kilkenny. While they haven’t met for 10 years in the championship, clashes in the League have been fairly frequent. And, Dunne points out that Tipp nearly always struggled to beat them because of the quality in their side. Year in year out, at minor and U-21, they never seem to be weak. There is never a year you can say that Kilkenny aren’t going to be great. They are always very strong.

“But we’ll be looking for a better performance.”